States with medical marijuana dispensaries saw "a significant decline" in opioid deaths over a 10-year period, according to a report published this week by the Journal of Health Economics. "The evidence suggests that Pennsylvania will see a reduction in opioid dependence and a reduction in overdose deaths" following the opening of the dispensaries, said David Powell, an economist for the Rand Corp., in an interview with the Inquirer and Daily News. The first dispensaries in Pennsylvania are to open next week, with the first medical marijuana products expected to be available to registered patients on Feb. 15. Powell coauthored the report, "Do medical marijuana laws reduce addictions and deaths related to pain killers," along with researchers from the University of California-Irvine, and the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. The study suggests that patients will substitute medical marijuana for addictive prescription opioids if cannabis products are available through dispensaries. Between 2000 and 2010, opioid-related fatalities and reductions in treatment admissions in states with flourishing dispensaries declined by about 20 percent. The report provides "some modest hope in an otherwise bleak landscape," Powell said. But he issued a caveat. The study was conducted in 2015, before fentanyl and other synthetic opioids began to ravage the nation, he said, so it may not be directly applicable to the current crisis. Illicit fentanyl, nearly all of it imported from China, has become the dominant killer implicated in fatal overdoses during the past two years. In addition, the association between medical marijuana dispensaries and fewer deaths appears to have weakened sharply after 2010, when states began to tighten requirements on sales by dispensaries. Powell said the declines were "relative." States that passed laws to legalize medical marijuana but don't have dispensaries did not experience declines. The state Department of Health, which Continue Reading

States with medical marijuana dispensaries saw “a significant decline” in opioid deaths over a 10-year period, according to a report published this week by the Journal of Health Economics. “The evidence suggests that Pennsylvania will see a reduction in opioid dependence and a reduction in overdose deaths” following the opening of the dispensaries, said David Powell, an economist for the Rand Corp., in an interview. The first dispensaries in Pennsylvania are to open next week, with the first medical marijuana products expected to be available to registered patients on Feb. 15. Powell coauthored the report, “Do medical marijuana laws reduce addictions and deaths related to pain killers,” along with researchers from the University of California-Irvine, and the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. The study suggests that patients will substitute medical marijuana for addictive prescription opioids if cannabis products are available through dispensaries. Between 2000 and 2010, opioid-related fatalities and reductions in treatment admissions in states with flourishing dispensaries declined by about 20 percent. The report provides “some modest hope in an otherwise bleak landscape,” Powell said. But he issued a caveat. The study was conducted in 2015, before fentanyl and other synthetic opioids began to ravage the nation, he said, so it may not be directly applicable to the current crisis. Illicit fentanyl, nearly all of it imported from China, has become the dominant killer implicated in fatal overdoses during the past two years. In addition, the association between medical marijuana dispensaries and fewer deaths appears to have weakened sharply after 2010, when states began to tighten requirements on sales by dispensaries. Powell said the declines were “relative.” States that passed laws to legalize medical marijuana but don't have dispensaries did not experience declines. The state Continue Reading

Philadelphia, with the highest opioid death rate of any major American city, this week announced plans to encourage the opening of sites where people can inject drugs under medical supervision. And though the precise locations of Philadelphia sites have not been established, the city could be the first in America to open an officially sanctioned safe-injection site. The move, announced Tuesday at a news conference by high-ranking city officials — but not Mayor Jim Kenney — places the city at the forefront of confronting the opioid crisis, which killed an estimated 1,200 people in Philadelphia last year, quadruple the homicide rate. "We are facing an epidemic of historic proportions," said Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, as the room, filled with advocates, erupted in applause. Farley and others emphasized, however, that the sites — which they are calling Comprehensive User Engagement Sites (CUES) — are just one aspect of what must be a major coordinated response. "We are not naive," said city managing director Mike DiBerardinis. "Nothing you hear today is the solution, but small parts of a larger effort." Police commissioner Richard Ross stepped up to the podium to say that he still has questions about how such sites would operate, and how his officers would police the areas around them. But, he added, the need to "save lives" has prompted him to keep an open mind about them. Meanwhile, Kenney spoke about the issue while at separate news conference about World Wrestling Entertainment's Royal Rumble Week — to be held this weekend at the Wells Fargo Center. The mayor said he supports opening safe injection sites. "We don't want them dying on the street and we want to have a place to administer Narcan if necessary," Kenney said after the WWE news conference. "We also want an opportunity to speak to people about their future and getting their lives straight ... They can't do that under a train bridge or on a train track." At the same Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — Opioid deaths increased slightly in Erie County last year, part of a continuing nationwide trend that Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer hopes to stem by insisting on more federal funding to combat the epidemic in a spending bill that must be finalized by the end of next week. An estimated 316 people died of opioid overdoses in Erie County last year, the county Department of Health said Wednesday. That includes 193 confirmed cases and 123 pending cases, of which a small number may be due to something other than an opioid overdose once tests are completed. The county reported 301 opioid deaths a year earlier, meaning deaths increased nearly 5 percent in 2017. That contrasts to a 19.5 percent increase in 2016 and a doubling of the opioid death rate the year before that. In light of last year's smaller but continuing increase, Schumer said it's imperative that the Trump administration agree to boost federal funding by billions of dollars a year. President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national health emergency last October, but Schumer said now's the time for some dollars-and-cents follow-up. "The president's own commission said we need more money," Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a conference call with reporters. "We haven't had the president come out and say he's for this money. We hope he will. And we certainly hope, when we push for it in the budget, he doesn't argue back." Asked for a response to Schumer's comments, deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley was noncommittal. “President Trump has prioritized this issue by declaring the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency and directing the entire Administration to focus combating this ‘crisis next door’ that affects so many American families across the country," Gidley said. "We will continue discussions with Congress on the appropriate level of funding needed to address this crisis.” The argument about federal funding comes amid Continue Reading

Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday called on the Arizona Legislature to convene a special session to pass legislation aimed at curbing the state's opioid and heroin epidemic. The Republican governor last year declared a public health emergency after the state health department released a report showing on average more than two Arizonans died every day in 2016 of prescription opioid or heroin overdoses. More recent figures suggest the rate of overdose deaths accelerated during the final six months of 2017, but Arizona Department of Health Services officials said the preliminary figures must be reviewed to determine whether any of the deaths can be ruled out from opioid-related causes. During his State of the State speech Monday, Ducey called on the Legislature to conduct a concurrent, special session to address the opioid epidemic. He did not say specifically what he will seek in the way of new legislative authority to combat the crisis. But it will likely incorporate recommendations outlined in the ADHS opioid action plan released last fall.That plan called for sweeping legislative and policy fixes to curb the opioid epidemic including the following changes: Limit initial opioid prescriptions for new patients to five days, require electronic prescriptions for opioids and set a maximum dosage of 90 morphine milligram equivalents per day Adopt measures to safely prescribe and dispense prescription pain medication. That would include mandating special labeling and packaging for opioids, requiring doctors and pharmacists to complete medical education on opioids and bolstering regulation of pain-management clinics to curb "pill-mill" activity. Prevent opioid-use disorder through other pain-management techniques and enforcement actions to curb illegally-prescribed opioids. Improve access to medicated-assisted treatment for people battling addiction. Adopt a Good Samaritan law that allows bystanders to call Continue Reading

Opioids now kill over 100 Americans every day. In a single year, opioids kill more Americans than died in the entire Vietnam and Iraq Wars. And while the underground drug trade is fueling this epidemic of medicalized self-destruction, the flow of black-market opioids is inseparable from its above-ground counterpart—the pharmaceutical companies that peddle the legal and FDA-approved pain killers like OxyContin and Vicodin. And now workers on the front lines of this crisis are challenging the nation’s biggest pushers to stop pumping deadly drugs into their neighborhoods. The Teamsters, whose members have struggled with the crisis of both illegal and legal opioid abuse, are wielding their shareholder power to link Big Pharma’s primary distributors to the logistical chain swelling opioid markets to a breaking point. At the August shareholder’s meeting of pharmaceutical wholesaler McKesson, the union leadership, as direct share owners, called for reforms to the company’s supply-chain monitoring and rejected a pay raise for its CEO. They have issued a similar call before the board of drug giant AmerisourceBergen, demanding that the company investigate its sales practices and review its executive-compensation levels. The Teamsters might be known for a tough blue-collar image, but members have lately been sharing heart-rending stories of how the trauma of opioid addiction has consumed their families. Many of the Rust Belt strongholds where their locals have community ties have seen a surge of overdose deaths, along with the joblessness and dwindling treatment resources that deepen their exposure to the crisis. The Teamsters see the massive opioid death toll as having structural roots in the overprescribing of painkillers. A profit-driven medical industry has for years been feeding medication dependencies that often rapidly spiral into illegal heroin use. The pattern of induced dependency is perpetuated by a severe lack of comprehensive, Continue Reading

The city is vowing to cut overdose deaths by 35% over the next five years, spending $38 million a year on a new push to combat opioid addiction. Under a plan Mayor de Blasio announced Monday, officials are looking to fight drug overdoses that killed 1,300 people in 2016 - a record high. Hizzoner pinned much of the blame for the epidemic on pharmaceutical companies, for promoting prescription painkillers which in turn led users to heroin and fentanyl. “There's something fueling this crisis that makes it different from some other public health crises - and that unfortunate factor is corporate greed. The pharmaceutical industry for years has encouraged the overuse of addictive painkillers. And that has unfortunately poisoned our entire society,” de Blasio said at a press conference at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. "The painkillers that have become all too common are some of the most addictive on the planet. And let's be clear, the pharmaceutical companies have peddled them in the name of profit,” he said. "The overuse of these drugs was planned by the pharmaceutical industry and the result has been devastating." Some 80% of the overdose deaths last year involved opioids, and 90% of fatal opioid ODs were caused by heroin or fentanyl, a powerful synthetic drug. The South Bronx and Staten Island were hardest hit. Officials plan to dramatically ramp up the distribution of naloxone, which can reverse overdoses and save lives, giving out 100,000 kits citywide. The Health Department will give out 65,500 kits to opioid treatment, detox and needle exchange programs, four times the current level. All 23,000 NYPD officers will be equipped with naloxone, and the city will give out 5,000 kits at the Rikers Island, and 6,500 at homeless shelters. There will also be 1,000 pharmacies selling naloxone over the counter without a prescription, up from 750 now. Hector Mata, a care coordinator at Continue Reading

ALBANY -- The number of opioid-related deaths rose 47 percent in New York over a five-year stretch, and the problem has been pronounced in many counties.You can check our database for the number of opioid-related deaths by county since 2003: http://lohud.nydatabases.com/database/opioid-related-deaths-new-york-stateBetween 2010 and 2014, the state saw the biggest increase in recent times.In 26 of the state’s 62 counties, the number of opioid-related deaths, including heroin, doubled.A total of 5,860 deaths occurred in New York between 2010 and 2014, compared with 2,931 from 2003 through 2007, a review of the data by Gannett’s Albany Bureau showed.The heroin deaths among people younger than 35 hit 313 in 2013 — nearly triple the number in 2009. Among those deaths, 103 of them were people aged 15 to 24, a report from the state Health Department found. THE TOLL: Drug deaths skyrocket: State Health Dept. report SPECIAL REPORT: Painkillers to heroin: A generation lost The opioid deaths also increased in the lower Hudson Valley as experts said young people in particular are turning to heroin as a cheaper alternative to other drugs.Westchester County had 460 opioid deaths from 2003 through 2014, up 61 percent between 2009 and 2014, the records showed.Rockland County had a 56 percent increase — to a total of 98 opioid-related deaths since 2003. Continue Reading

The growth in heroin deaths in New York is part of a national trend, but new statistics from the state Health Department show just how stark the problem as become across the state, particularly outside New York City.Indeed, 26 of the state’s 62 counties saw the number of deaths double during the five-year span. A total of 5,860 deaths occurred in New York between 2010 and 2014, compared with 2,931 from 2003 through 2007, a review of the data by Gannett’s Albany Bureau showed.“Opioid addiction is a national epidemic that continues to plague families in communities across New York,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said May 10 when he announced a new drug task force. DATABASE: Heroin/opioid deaths by county NALOXONE: Heroin-overdose medications coming to more pharmacies INVESTIGATION: Addiction struggles laid bare in Rockland County FORUM: Ideas for ending the opioid epidemic The state Legislature is debating a package of new bills to address the growing problem before the legislative session ends in mid-June.A report quietly released by the Health Department this month shows how staggering the heroin and opioid problem has become:The numbers are staggering in some places across New York: In 2013, an average of two New Yorkers a day died of heroin-related overdoses, the Health Department’s report said.The highest rate of heroin-related overdose fatalities from 2009 to 2013 in counties with 20 or more deaths was in Dutchess County — at a rate of 5.5 per 100,000 people. Suffolk and Bronx counties were ranked second and third.Ten counties had a rate of more than 10 deaths for all opioids per 100,000 population in 2014, well exceeding the New York average of 6.7 opioid deaths per 100,000 people, Gannett’s review found.Sullivan County in the Catskills had 20 deaths per 100,000 people, while Dutchess and Tioga also ranked in the top 10 at 10 deaths per 100,000 people.“Horror story after horror story that we have Continue Reading

President Donald Trump spoke at the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia on July 24, joining a long list of presidents who have spoken to the huge meeting of Boy Scouts, troop leaders and volunteers. The visit was not surprising, as West Virginia, in the center of Appalachia, is overwhelmingly Trump Country.It is also at the center of the nation’s opioid epidemic, with a rate of 42 overdose deaths per 100,000, more than double the national average. Indeed, on Aug. 15, 2016, Huntington, home of Marshall University, experienced more than two dozen overdoses in a span of just four hours.West Virginia is also a state that has been aggressive in taking advantage of opportunities offered by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act, including the ACA insurance marketplaces and the Medicaid expansion.While about two-thirds of voters supported Trump in the election, support for expanding Medicaid has largely been bipartisan. At least until now.With GOP repeal-and-replace efforts still very much up in the air, one thing has become clear: All proposals made public by congressional Republicans have significant, detrimental effects on West Virginia’s and America’s ability to combat the opioid epidemic. An escalating problemThe opioid addiction crisis in America is growing worse. An analysis in June 2017 by The New York Times showed a 19 percent increase in drug overdose deaths from 2015 to 2016, and experts cited opioids as the likely reason for the increase.More than 20 million Americans suffer from an addiction. Close to seven million of these addicts also have a mental illness. The Surgeon General’s office has estimated that the yearly losses in productivity, health care costs and criminal justice expenses for alcohol misuse and illicit drug abuse amount to US$442 billion.In 2015, the most recent year for which figures are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 52,000 Americans died from drug Continue Reading